Traveling Evangelists

(From The Hartford Courant -- By Clarisa Ramirez)

Running a vehicle on used vegetable oil is not a new idea. Companies now sell a professional kit, costing from $600 to $800, to make diesel engines compatible with the waste oil, DARTMOUTH GRADUATE DOUG HANNAH of SIMSBURY, CONNECTICUT explains.

"RUDOLPH DIESEL, when he originally invented the engine, designed it to run on peanut oil," says Hannah. "The WVO has been around for 10 to 15 years at least."

Based on information collected and posted on THE BIG GREEN BUS WEBSITE, this is how the rebuilt engine inside the old school bus works.

There are two engines in the bus. One is used to store and heat the vegetable oil, and the other, which runs on diesel fuel, is used to start the bus and warm the vegetable oil tank.

When the bus starts running, the coolant lines reroute the heat from the diesel tank to the WVO tank. Once the oil is heated, the bus is ready to run on WVO.

Also, when the bus stops, the driver switches from using WVO to diesel fuel to flush the vegetable oil out of the engine. That prevents congealment and buildups from forming.